In the News

Manhattan Beach, CA - In 1912, Willa and Charles Bruce bought a parcel of land in Manhattan Beach. They operated a lodge, cafe, and dance hall on the property. It was a refuge for Black beachgoers to enjoy a weekend away. The area became known as Bruce’s Beach. 

But the couple were harassed and threatened by white neighbors and members of the Ku Klux Klan. By 1924, city officials condemned the property and forced the Bruces to sell and leave, robbing future members of the Bruce family of generational wealth from the land. 

Los Angeles —  In September, Senate Bill 796 unanimously passed the California Senate, ensuring Los Angeles County gives back land seized from a Black family.

"This property was stolen from the Bruces," Senator Steven Bradford from California District 35 said." We're returning what was stolen, what was rightfully theirs."

LOS ANGELES — With the flick of a pen Thursday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom codified the return of prime beachfront property in Southern California to the descendants of a Black couple who were stripped of their land and driven out by the Ku Klux Klan nearly 100 years ago.

California lawmakers this month unanimously passed a law to allow the return of what was once a thriving coastal resort that catered to Black residents when racial segregation barred them from many beaches.

SACRAMENTO — In 2019, Fouzia Almarou was speaking at a police reform rally at Rowley Park in Gardena when a man she didn’t know made her a promise she didn’t quite trust.

Gardena police had shot Almarou’s son, Kenneth Ross Jr., at the park a year earlier, and she was marking the one-year “angel-versary” of his death.